


Just Filling In

by PuppyLuver256



Series: Life and Times in the Habit-Bora Household [4]
Category: Smile For Me (Video Game)
Genre: Dentistry, Hyperdontia, M/M, Mild Blood, Needles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:14:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22919032
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PuppyLuver256/pseuds/PuppyLuver256
Summary: It's been a long time coming, and Habit's finally getting the rest of those pilfered teeth removed. Kamal's the one who takes care of all his dental work, but what's going to happen when a call from Putunia's school requires him to leave before they get started?
Relationships: Dr. Boris Habit & Putunia Mollar, Kamal Bora & Putunia Mollar, Kamal Bora/Dr. Boris Habit
Series: Life and Times in the Habit-Bora Household [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1552876
Comments: 2
Kudos: 51





	Just Filling In

**Author's Note:**

> This takes place sometime in between my previous works “Different Kinds of Love” and “I Hate Leaving My Lily Behind” in terms of timeline placement for this series. Also yeah, even though the majority of this takes place in the dental clinic, it's got Habismal and there's a scene in their house, so it totally counts to be in this series so HA!

There were two staff regulations at Bora-Keally Dentistry that were quite a bit more odd than those at most dental clinics. Strangely enough, they both revolved around one particular patient. One, no one was allowed to perform any sort of work, not even a simple cleaning, on Boris Habit aside from Dr. Kamal Bora. Two, no one was permitted to look at Boris Habit’s dental records aside from, again, Dr. Kamal Bora.

Dr. Chris Keally could understand the first one: from what little interaction he had had with Boris, the man had the worst case of dental anxiety he had seen in anyone older than ten years old, going so far as having to be given laughing gas for something as routine and simple as cleaning, and being that Kamal was his husband he likely trusted him much more than himself or the hygienists who he didn’t know nearly as well. The records thing, on the other hand...yeah, patient confidentiality was a Thing and Chris immensely respected that, but that file was literally the only one that wasn’t stored on the shelves that could easily be accessed by all staff members. Kamal kept it under lock and key in his personal office, only ever taking it out when Boris was getting work done and never letting it out of either of their sight. Chris was _not_ a nosy man, generally preferring to leave himself out of other people’s business, but even he had to admit he was genuinely curious about what was in there.

It was nearing the end of another normal day when he came in, having to duck under the doorframe to fit through as always. “Good afternoon, Boris!” the secretary Janelle exclaimed upon seeing him arrive. “Wow, third appointment in the past month, haven’t seen you so often since this was _your_ clinic.”

“Not ‘quite’ like it, or else Ide be hear every-day.” Boris gave a nervous laugh. “Could yuo let Kamal know I’m here now, pleese?”

“Of course, sir, I’ll let him know right away,” Janelle said with a smile. “He should already be freed up from his last patient anyway. Feel free to have a seat while I get him for you, all right?”

“Thamk you.”

Boris took a seat next to the magazine rack, thankfully not having to wait too long before Kamal poked his head into the waiting room. “You ready to go, hon?” he asked. Without a word, probably due to anxiety, Boris stood up and followed his husband into the back rooms. They passed by an examination room where Dr. Keally had just finished with one of his patients, and Boris gave him a nervous smile and a small wave with the hand that wasn’t tightly gripping Kamal’s. Chris waved back—it was the polite thing to do, after all—and as he sent his own patient on their way he couldn’t help but wonder how the hell someone who was so bothered by dentist visits was ever a dentist himself. Eh, it wasn’t his place to pry. Besides, being the one in the chair and being the one with the tools _were_ pretty different experiences.

Once they’d gotten to the examination room they would be using, Kamal got Boris as comfortable in the chair as he could be given the circumstances, then he stepped away briefly to bring in the gas. Whoever had helped to prep the room had only included the standard nitrous that they used for everyone, but Kamal knew from experience that wouldn’t be enough for Boris in this situation. He somehow managed to drag the last of a few heavy canisters that had been saved back from the days of the Habitat. Very unprofessionally-made labels were stuck all over the outside of the canister, saying things like “ _st-rongk stuff!!_ ” and “ _dangrous!!! :-O_ ” and “ _2 B resevred ‘4’ the Big Event!_ ” He cringed inwardly being reminded of all that, and was very glad that the number of people who’d been affected by that was minimal. Only two, technically three if you counted him running back after everyone else was gone to shut things off and check up on those remaining, when it could have been twenty-four...

With a grunt and one final forceful drag across the threshold, Kamal managed to get the canister into the room, then closed and locked the door behind him. The dolly he was moving it with did little to help with the massive thing’s mobility, and the wheels getting caught on the room divider thing on the floor didn’t help matters. “Okay, just this last time and they’ll all be out,” Kamal said with a sigh of relief as he finally got everything hooked up. “You doin’ okay right now?”

“I wamt to say ‘yes’, but Ime not, you know that,” Boris murmured. He always seemed like a totally different person when in the chair, scared and small (well, for his actual size anyway) instead of boisterous and larger than life in the metaphorical sense. Still pretty large, of course, as his feet hung uncomfortably off the end of the leg rest. “I’m Scared ag-en," he said. “I’m scaired but at the same thyme I want this too be over with and I trust ‘you’, lily...”

“I know,” Kamal said, giving him a reassuring smile. “I’ve got you. They’ll be all out before you know it, and then we can go home and you can rest and you’ll be fine.” He took hold of Boris’s giant hand and squeezed it gently, then lightly kissed Boris on the forehead and placed the breathing hose on his face, allowing him to adjust it himself until it was comfortable before turning the gas on.

Kamal had just gotten his face mask on when there was a knock on the locked door. Groaning in annoyance, he made his way to the door and cracked it open just barely enough to see Janelle outside. “Sorry to interrupt, Dr. Bora, but you have a call from your daughter’s school.”

“Can it wait?” Kamal asked. “We’re kinda...y’know, about to get started?”

“They made it sound like it was _pretty_ urgent,” Janelle said. “I think you need to take this right away.”

Kamal swore under his breath and sighed, pulling his mask off and turning back to Boris. “I’ll be right back, okay? Just need to hear what’s up with Tunes.” He patted him on the shoulder reassuringly. “Look at it this way, you've got more time for the gas to take effect.”

“Oh itse take-ing affects all-readie,” Boris said, giggling like a little kid. Or a bunch of paper cut-out robots. Kamal pushed that thought out of his head.

He left the examination room, locking it behind him and adding a “do not disturb” sign just in case anyone tried to barge in on Boris out of curiosity, and made his way to the phone. Chris was busy putting away his last patient's file on the large shelf in the back and couldn’t help but overhear his colleague’s call. “Dr. Bora speaking. ... Sorry, she did _what_ to a classmate? ... Well, did he try to hit her first? ... Yes, it _is_ important.” Kamal groaned. “Look, I’d come pick her up if I could, but I’m kinda busy with a patient right now. ... Yeah, because _he’s actually the patient in question_. ... I’ll see what I can do.” He hung up the phone and immediately began freaking out. “God, what _am_ I gonna do?!” he blurted out. “I can’t just _leave_ , not right now! And I can’t call up anyone else to get her, the only person I can remember who’s on her authorized pickup list off the top of my head is probably asleep right now!”

“You guys could always reschedule, right?” Chris asked, looking away from the file shelf. "She’s his kid too, he’ll understand."

“Yeah, but we wanted to go ahead and get this done with...” Kamal grabbed at the bridge of his nose and sighed. "Only one thing I can think to do, and I know he’s probably not gonna like it,” He looked over at Chris, clearly nervous from what he was about to ask. “You got any appointments lined up for the rest of the day?”

“Uh, no, the one I just finished was my last.”

“Then I’m gonna need your help.”

He waved for Chris to follow him, which he did without question. He may not have known the patient very well, but if there was a way he could help out with this unexpected situation he was pretty sure he would be willing to do it. Kamal led Chris to his office, and once they were there he unlocked a drawer in his desk and removed an envelope that looked just like all the others in the file shelf. “Now I’m trusting you with this, and _only_ you,” Kamal told him. “Mainly cuz I think anyone else would get really freaked out. I’m asking you to take over for me with Boris’s extraction.”

“Oh, is _that_ what those last three visits have been about?” Chris asked. “How many have you guys needed to remove by now?”

Kamal didn’t directly answer, just handing Chris the file so he could see for himself. “That’s, uh...that’s why he wanted this kept secret.”

Chris raised an eyebrow, then opened the file to look at what he would be getting himself into. Didn’t seem to be anything too drastic, no cavities, generally kept up with good hygiene habits (heh) outside of cleaning appointments, past few visits involved a total of 85 teeth removed, healthy gums—wait a minute. “ _Eighty-five teeth?!_ ” he spat out in a shocked whisper, still having the courtesy to keep patient confidentiality in mind. “That can’t be correct, can it? I’m just reading this wrong, right?”

“To be fair, I _may_ have miscounted by like one or two, but that’d be a miscount on the ‘not as many as there actually were’ side instead of ‘way more than there actually were’,” Kamal said with a grimace. “See, _that’s_ why we—well, more Boris than myself—wanted to keep this as low-key as possible. It’s something he thinks people would get scared of...”

“God, that must’ve felt real uncomfortable with all of those extra teeth growing in,” Chris thought aloud, and it was all Kamal could do to keep from clarifying. “So you really trust me to take care of the rest, alone? You sure I can’t get Rachel in there to help with it or someth—”

“No, he wants as few people to know about this as possible!” Kamal exclaimed. “Look, I’ll go let Boris know about this change of plans. You can claim as much overtime for this as you want for this, all right?”

“Uh...okay, I guess I can do this.”

“Thanks, you’re a lifesaver.” Kamal quickly ran back to the examination room, unlocking the door and slipping in to see that Boris had removed the hose while he had been waiting, letting it rest around his neck. “Taking too long for ya?” Kamal asked with a nervous laugh.

“Did-ent wamnt to risk ann overdoze,” Boris said sleepily.

“Good call, but you should probably put that back on soon.” With a nod, Boris obliged, and as he got it adjusted once again Kamal agonized over how he was gonna tell him. Well, no better way than to just be honest. “Listen, Boris, something’s come up with Putunia so I gotta go. I’ve got Keally coming in and he’s gonna help while I’m gone. Don’t give him too much trouble, okay?”

Boris smiled, already becoming giggly again. “Putunia’s such a goode child...soooo good.”

“Yep, she really is,” Kamal said. “I’'ll be back to bring you home in a bit.” He leaned over to kiss Boris's forehead once more.

“Noooo, domt kees right ‘now’!” Boris protested, laughing nonetheless. “Your reigning on meeeee my hare will get _WET!_ ”

“I’ll bring you towels.”

Kamal opened the door just enough for him to get through and for Chris to enter right behind him, handing him the keys to the room as they traded places. “All right, Boris, how are we doing today?” he asked once Kamal had left, trying to keep things calm since he knew how the guy must be feeling at the moment.

Boris tilted his head back to look at Chris, giving him a confused stare before turning over to see him properly. “Hel-lo, cheebs-borgered man,” he said cheerfully. “Ummm... who ‘R’ yuo ag-ain? Where’s is Kamaaall?”

“Uh, I’m Dr. Keally? You've seen me before, right?” Chris chose to ignore the “cheebs-borgered” comment. “Kamal said he was going to tell you...”

“Ohhhhh your’re Chris-to-fur!” Boris laughed. “Sorrey, this stuff, hehe, it make’s me ‘C’ thimgs weirb. Whamts the worbd...hollow-sin-getic affects? You’re heade looks like a cheez-burgurb hehehe...”

“Okay then,” Chris said. He knew that nitrous oxide had the chance to cause hallucinations, but they weren’t exactly common. Maybe Boris was just more susceptible to them, or maybe they were more likely to happen with whatever this replacement canister of “st-rongk stuff” had in it, or both. “Well, shall we get started?”

“Star-ted?” It took a bit longer than it normally might have for Boris to process what he was saying. “Oh Kamlal was-ent kiddign was he... _ohhhnooo he wabsn’t kideing aaaaaaa nooooooohhhh..._ ”

“No, I’m afraid he wasn’t,” Chris said, putting his mask and gloves on. “If you’re not ready, we can wait another minute or so...”

“I jusst...knead some-thimg flirst.” Boris pointed to the corner of the room, where his coat was draped over a normal chair. “Can u grabbe my freind? He helbs me feel comforbal. Shoulbe inn the left popket...”

Chris made his way over to the chair and examined the coat. Sure enough, there was a soft object in there, which he removed to see that it was...a puppet replica of the patient, complete with a coat of his own and a little hat that matched the larger hat that he’d accidentally knocked to the floor. “You mean this little guy?” he asked, though as he hadn’t found anything else that could be a “friend” he assumed that this was it.

“Lil Habbyyyy yes thassim!” He began to sit up to reach for the puppet but the hose connected to the gas reminded him of its presence, so rather than risk breaking something or being violently pulled back himself, he flopped back down and instead made grabby-hands at his tiny doppelganger like an oversized child. Chris gently handed him the puppet, which Boris took hold of with great care, brushing the stray “hair” out of his little felt face. After he had his friend in hand, he watched Chris return to the stool he’d be sitting in beside his tray of tools on his right, and with that in his pretty foggy mental map of the room he slid the puppet onto his left hand where he’d be out of the way.

“So did you make that yourself?” Chris said as he pulled the overhead light around and turned it on. “Looks just like you.”

“Yeah, tha’s the poimt,” Boris chuckled. “Webve got a long his-try and deeb connec-shon, hehehe...” He made a weird face, looking down the length of his body for some reason. “My feets are all weird-feelinbg...thinmk they wemt two sleeps...womdar whye?”

“That could be because you’re a very long man and that chair is made for average-sized people.”

Boris chuckled, and shortly after opened his mouth wide, as if guessing that Chris was just about to ask him to do so. _God_...even though he’d already seen the files and had a vague idea of what he was getting into, he hadn’t been prepared to see the actual thing. There were at least enough to fill another mouth entirely, and to think, there had been _85 more of them_ in there at one point... “Must’ve been really uncomfortable to have all those in there,” Chris mused, trying not to let his shock be noticed. “It’ll be a relief when this is over, right?”

“Ah-hah...”

“All right, then...” Chris could tell that Boris wanted him to get this done as quick as possible, and to be honest he did as well. He grabbed a set of dental pliers and went about getting to work. Smaller teeth first, careful not to bump into the ones that were supposed to be there. As he gently removed a few, he could see him flinch a tiny bit and hear him let out a little whine despite being heavy under the gas. He could only imagine how bad it’d be if they were getting pulled out with nothing... “You want me to try some novocaine, see if that helps?” he asked after using the suction hose to remove some pooling saliva.

“Iiiiiiuh domnt knowww...” Boris moaned. “Ime knot shore if I actulaly feel any paine or if its juste me know-ing thnings are goeing on in their and imagning it as a re-sult...”

“Not 2 mention u ‘hate’ knee-dolls amny way!”

Chris jumped at hearing the second voice. Or... _was_ it a second voice? It sounded so much like Boris but without any sign of the condition he was currently in. He looked over to see that Boris’s puppet had been lifted to “see” what was going on. “You prom-ised to behaaave,” Boris said, giving the puppet a glare before turning back to Chris. “Sorrey ab-out him, he lieks to be invlolved in things.”

“That’s cool how you’re getting him to talk without moving your mouth,” Chris said with a bit of a nervous chuckle. “I heard you used to be a dentist too, but I had no idea you were a ventriloquist.”

Boris shook his head. “Ime not...makeing him talk,” he said, grinning mischievously. “He just dose.”

“U bechya!” the puppet exclaimed. “Ivbe gott a Mind of my Owne and I _will_ ‘say’ whats’is on it!”

“Eh...what’s one more weird thing for me to deal with today.” Chris sighed and asked, “So, you wanna try novocaine or no?”

“Juste...trye to not let me see the needol.”

With a nod, Chris did just that. It felt weird trying to keep the needle hidden, especially when Boris’s puppet was “staring” at him. He could _swear_ he saw the thing lift its little arms in surprise as it “watched” him apply the novocaine, but he reasoned to himself that he was just imagining it. “Could you put your arms down, please?” he asked, to which Boris obliged with no protest from himself and a little squeal of surprise from the puppet. “Thank you.” Chris had to focus. He didn’t want to keep this very nervous patient here for longer than necessary. One by one, as gentle as possible, each of the extra teeth were coming out with very little problem aside from the increasingly reddening fluids filling the back of Boris’s mouth that would have to be suctioned out with increasing frequency. Considering their location just behind the normal set, these must’ve been the easy ones to remove, as there were ones marked on his chart that were filling the roof of his mouth and some lodged right at the base of his tongue. “How does a guy with such dental anxiety like yourself get into this profession in the first place?” he mused, not really expecting a response.

“Thash foh mah ferra-pish.”

“Sorry, forget I asked,” Chris said. “That’s not the sort of thing I’m here to pry at, hehe.” Just a couple more left now, strangely among the regular set that had been personally marked for removal by the big guy himself. Carefully he eased them out as best he could, one at a time. After he had gotten the last one out, he let out a sigh of relief as he suctioned out the bloody saliva mix. “There we go, sir, all done.” He pulled his mask off and gave Boris a smile, along with a cup of water to help rinse out any blood that might be oozing back out. “How does it feel in there?” he asked. “After all those are gone, I mean?”

“...Emphy...” Boris murmured, removing the breathing hose so he could get regular air back into his system again. “Buh ish ah gone...moh nommah...” He smiled weakly before rinsing his mouth out, or at least trying to. He had been numbed up pretty strongly so a lot of it ended up dribbling out of the corners of his mouth, but he figured that was what the little paper towel bib was for.

“Normal’s good,” Chris said. He thought for a bit, and asked, “So about the ones in the front...anything you wanna do about those at some point?”

Boris shook his head, putting the hand not holding the little cup on his forehead to cradle a forming headache. “Don wanna fing abow thah ri-now...” he moaned. “Mebbe inna few yearsh...an...an Gamah hash-da do ih...”

“Yeah, that can wait for as long as you need.” Chris handed Boris a small box of gauze pads, which he immediately began taking several and shoving into his mouth. “Did I at least do a decent job filling in for your husband?” he asked. Boris gave him a nod and a little noise of affirmation. “Good, I’m glad.”

It took a little bit of coaxing and careful maneuvering in a still-somewhat-gassed state, but Chris managed to help Boris get back into the lobby, where he could wait in relative peace for Kamal to return as the only ones still there besides him were staff. Not too long after the front door burst open and Kamal came in, panting heavily. “Sorry about all this,” he said between breaths. “Tried to get back as soon as possible, dropped Putunia off with the Varnnias for a bit and we can go get her on the way home.” Boris was still too out of it to give his husband the usual bear hug like he wanted, so he just gave him a thumbs-up with a gauze-filled smile. Kamal turned to Chris, who had stuck around to watch over Boris just in case. “So how’d he do?” he asked. “Was he okay?”

“Oh, he was great,” Chris said. “He had me give him some novocaine so he’s probably gonna be numb for a bit, but yeah, everything’s taken care of.”

“Thanks a bunch, Keally, you rock.”

“Also he said he saw my head as a...burger? For some reason?”

Kamal couldn't help but laugh. “Yeah, that happens to him under the gas,” he said. “If it makes you feel any better, I’m apparently a cloud.” He turned back to Boris, who was already shakily standing up so they could leave. “Remember, hon, we’re going home in my car, not yours.” Boris groaned in annoyance as he put on his coat, or at least tried to as his arm couldn't quite connect with his sleeve. “I know, the leg room sucks, but you’re _not_ driving in your condition,” Kamal said. “I’ll bring you back to get your car in the morning, like always.”

\-----

The drive home was fairly quiet, though of course that was to be expected. Boris had wanted to keep the gauze in his mouth until they got home just in case, so he obviously couldn’t speak. He could still technically “talk”, but signing to someone who had to keep their eyes on the road probably wasn’t the best idea, so he decided to just take a nap as best he could with Kamal’s small car giving him very little leg room.

Somehow he’d managed to completely conk out for the rest of the drive, as when he woke up the car was in their driveway, there was a large bag of food from a local deli in his lap, and Putunia was excitedly yammering on from the seat behind him about something he was still a tiny bit too out of it to pay proper attention to. “We’re hoooome,” Kamal said softly once he noticed Boris waking up. “I’ll get the bag, don’t worry. You need help getting out?” Boris shook his head, figuring his mind was clear enough to operate a door handle. He then pointed to the bag and made an inquisitive sound. “Got you some soup,” Kamal said. “Tomato bisque. Also got some sandwiches, they had a deal for soup and sandwich combo so you got one too and we can save yours back for later. Sound good?” Boris nodded and did his best to smile even with the gauze and still-numb mouth.

As soon as they got into the house, Boris made his way into the bathroom and removed the gauze, now thoroughly coated in saliva and spots of blood. “Bleh, nashtie...” he muttered to himself as he threw the first part away. He heard the stomping of large paws before he could get all of it into the trash, and he looked at the door to see a curious Webster staring intently at the very interesting object in his hand. “Webby nooo, yuo don wan dish,” he said, but of course the dog would not stop staring. “Ish nodda doy, ish drash. No.” Still Webster's eyes didn’t leave the gross wet gauze. “Gamaaaahh!” Boris called out. “Cannoe ged Webby’sh shewie? He wansha ead mah gaush!”

“I got ‘im, don’t worry!” Kamal called back. Soon enough he was there as well, holding a big lumpy toy bone already covered in chew marks. “Webby! Hey, Webby! You want the chewie? Come get it!” Webster's attention was diverted easily, and he bounded toward Kamal with his tongue hanging out, happily distracted from the very interesting gauze wads.

The three enjoyed their dinner together on the couch later, and Boris was honestly pretty glad that the pets had no real interest in his tomato bisque. Webster was a bit curious about the smell of medical stuff surrounding him, but thankfully the meat in Kamal and Putunia’s sandwiches interested him more. By contrast the medical smell made Willow a bit frightened of him and she was keeping her distance for the time being until he smelled like himself again. “So how come you’re still talkin’ weird after the dentist this time?” Putunia asked. “Did the other guy getcha with a lot of numb juice?”

“Yah, he gah-me reel good,” Boris chuckled. “Shdill sheeing diney weirb fings from da gash, shoul-be good on bof inna liddol bid.”

“Speaking of ‘seeing weird things’, I’m curious,” Kamal said. “So you see me as a cloud and Keally’s a burger, but what do you see Putunia and the pets as?"

“Noh-mah?” Boris shrugged. “Ish all-reddy goimg bagh do reglur vishon. I can shee your reall fayshe, jush your hair’sh a liddol clowdie shtill.”

“Oh, oh! What do you _think_ we’d look like?” Putunia asked excitedly, jumping in her spot on the couch and making Boris thankful that he’d put his soup on the coffee table.

“I dunno, honeshly, but your mashk woulb probally be there,” Boris said. “Willah woulbee... I fink she mighd be a bah-of yarn.”

“Heh, nice,” Kamal said. “What about Webster, then?”

The answer came without hesitation. “Ham.”

The phone rang before any of them could properly react to that. Since Kamal wasn’t the one still recovering from dental surgery and also didn’t currently have a child leaning on him, he decided to get up and answer it. The caller ID said...the clinic? That was weird, but Chris _did_ tend to stay a little later than normal after bigger procedures so maybe he was just calling to check up on Boris afterward, having pretty much become a friend of the family at this point. He answered the phone with a friendly “Hello?” There was no response. Or rather, no _verbal_ response. Instead there was a series of light taps against the phone, three quick ones, then three with longer pauses in between and three quick again. “I dunno if you're Chris or Janelle, but if this is a joke, I don’t get it. Can whoever this is please just talk to me?” The tapping just repeated again, though he could also hear loud footsteps in the distance running toward the phone.

“ _Give me that, you little—!_ ” Chris’s voice rang out loud enough that Kamal could hear it clearly despite him not having the phone in his hands. There was a bit of a clatter, and soon enough his voice was so loud that Kamal had to hold the phone away from his ear. “ _KAMAL, PLEASE COME GET THIS THING!!_ ” Chris shouted, sounding very panicked. “ _IT’S FREAKING ME OUT JUST COME BACK AND GET IT OUTTA HERE PLEASE!!_ ”

Kamal looked over to Boris, who had clearly heard all of that and was now staring at him with a look of horror on his face, the sort of horror a parent would have when they realized they left their child at the grocery store. They both figured out at the same time what was going on. “I foh-god Lil Habby...” Boris said breathlessly. " _I abah-dond mah boy!!_ ”

“Oh boy...” Kamal put the phone back to his face and said, with a nervous laugh, “I’ll be there in a bit. Just...try to get him to settle down until I get there, okay?”

“ _Okay?! OKAY?! This thing shouldn’t even be moving, how the hell—_ ”

“Cool, see you then!” He hung up before Chris could say anything else, then grabbed his keys and made his way to the door. “I’ll be right back, you guys are cool to just chill for a bit, right?”

“Be cah-foh," Boris said with a wave. “Don shpeed, and wash oud foh draffigh!”

“Can you get me a treat on the way home??" Putunia asked.

“We’ll see,” Kamal said, and Putunia beamed because that usually meant “yes” when it came to her fathers. With all that out of the way, Kamal grabbed his shoes and jacket, and soon enough was out the door.

“Soooo...” Putunia said when she and Boris were alone. “Since the Green Menace is probably out of commission for a bit...you wanna draw together?”

Boris chuckled a bit. “Drawlin shouns lobvley.”

**Author's Note:**

> Think of this like a spiritual sequel to Hyperdontia and the Intrepid Flower, hehe. Just had the idea that post-Habitat, Kamal would more than likely be the only dentist Habit would trust with his dental care, and I was wondering how he’d do if he suddenly had to have someone else fill in. I do think that sometime much, much later down the line he might consider proper implants for the “hurt smile”, but he’d have to make a lot of progress with his therapy first before he’s ready to fill the holes of that trauma with something better.
> 
> Shout-out to SmilieDumdum and their work “ _Coming out_ ”, lingering memories of which inspired parts of this one. (I recently went back to read that one to make sure I wasn’t accidentally copying it outright at points, and it’s still good like I remembered so you should go check it out) And a shout-out to the real _Dr. Keally_ , my current dentist who Chris is partially named after. He’s a good dude and told me I could use kids’ toothpaste and kids’ mouthwash so I can take care of my dental hygiene without wanting to barf. :D ...No, Chris is not his real given name. “Chris” is actually a vague reference to my childhood dentist. You really think I’d just whole-ass plop a real person in my fics? Nah. That’s rude. :P
> 
> (also I forgot to mention, Tav--pollyannam3--helped with some of the dialogue, specifically the part where Habit's thinking about what the collaged pets would look like)


End file.
